The present invention relates to an absorbent article having a breathable backsheet which is printed in multicolor and has a cloth-like appearance and feel.
Absorbent articles such as disposable diapers have a composite sheet comprising a breathable film and a nonwoven material as a backsheet in order to prevent an increase of humidity in the internal environment of the article while worn and also to improve the texture or feel to the touch. Some absorbent articles have the backsheet printed with logos or patterns to improve the appearance and to appeal to consumers. For example, the backsheet can be printed in multicolor to find greater consumer acceptance.
The printing could be done on the surface side or the reverse side of the nonwoven material or on the side of the breathable film to be brought into contact with the nonwoven material. Nonwoven material, being an aggregate of fiber, has an uneven surface and is difficult to print in multicolor neatly. The film, on the other hand, has excellent surface characteristics and is fit for high-quality printing. Therefore, multicolor printing is usually done on the film on the side to be laminated with nonwoven material. In this case, however, the print is covered with a laminating nonwoven material and therefore gets blurred to the eyes of consumers. Such blurred printing would rather reduce the consumer acceptance. The clearness of the printing covered with a nonwoven material cannot be improved but by reducing the thickness or basis weight of the nonwoven material, which would make the texture or feel of the product insufficient.
WO99/60973 discloses a disposable diaper having a laminate sheet comprising a breathable film and a nonwoven material, in which the film is printed on its side laminated with the nonwoven material. The object of the invention disclosed is to prevent the background color of the film from yellowing which will reduce consumer acceptance. The invention uses a film whose b* value is in a specific range to achieve the object. The proposed diaper cannot be seen as satisfactory in both clearness of the multicolor printing and the texture or the touch.